1 The confession

"No."

It was a simple word, which Mai had heard many times during her young life. Yet just with that one word she felt like someone had ripped out her heart, put it into a blender and turned the dial all the way up.

Standing in the middle of the classroom, in her black and white school uniform, with her long black ponytail, Mai had just been publicly rejected. What's worse, it wasn't by just anyone, it was her first love.

Chris Beneard turned around, his broad shoulders, short brown hair and perfect back were the last thing Mai saw as he walked out without even looking back at her, after only having said that one damned word.

'Hey, hey, hey! This isn't how it was meant to go!' Mai screamed internally. 'This isn't how I pictured it! How are we supposed to go on our first date like this?! I've already decided to try and cook something for you, making you discover that I'm a bad cook, so that you can reveal that you're actually an amazing chef and cook me something better.'

'What about our first argument when you see my brother's name on the phone, and I find out that you have a cute jealous side?!'

Eventually, realisation had hit, that all the cute fantasies she had been playing in her head had come crashing down. Then a new wave of emotions hit her.

None of her classmates had come up to her, avoiding contact they had begun to whisper and gossip about what had just happened. Even her best friends were too perplexed to go up and comfort her.

Anger, sadness, embarrassment, emotional pain overwhelmed her. She was sure she would remember this moment for the rest of her life.

"Chris Beneard, I hate you!" Mai screamed at the top of her lungs as she angrily stomped her feet while walking away, slamming the classroom door behind her.

Usually, Mai would walk home with her best friends from school, but she couldn't stand staying there for even a single moment longer. Even though it meant missing out on the last lesson, she needed to walk away to clear her head.

Mai just knew that the rejection was guaranteed to become the entire school's gossip for the foreseeable future. Her friends would just ask her about the horrid rejection she had just experienced and it would only bug her.

'What a horrible day.' She sighed.

And as if the gods weren't on her side, rain drops started to fall from the sky. She reached around the side of her backpack, expecting to grab her umbrella, but there was nothing there.

'Oh that's right, one of my plans was to have him offer his umbrella for me, so the two of us could walk back together. Ha, ha… I'm an idiot, aren't I? I watched too many of those dramas and forgot that what was being shown wasn't real life… why did I ever think it would be a good idea to call him in and confess in front of everyone?!'

As the rain fell on her face, it became hard for her to distinguish whether her face felt wet because of the falling rain drops or the tears she was no longer able to hold back.

After walking her normal routine soaking wet, she finally arrived outside her house. There was nothing special about it, as ordinary as her family living inside, which suited an average girl like her.

As she opened the door, several loud bangs could be heard followed by the words. "Surprise!" The group of people inside shouted.

She looked past the group of people, and saw in the background a bunch of balloons with the number 16 written on them.

'Oh that's right, that's why I confessed to him. He was the only birthday gift I actually wanted today.' She sighed.

"Oh my gosh, Mai, how could you forget to take your umbrella? You're soaking wet, sweetie. Come on, let's get you changed out of those clothes, we don't want our special girl to catch a cold."

After a quick change, and drying her hair, Mai looked at herself in the mirror and simply chuckled looking at the state she was in.

'No wonder he said no.' She thought.

Returning to the main room, she sat down and hoped that spending time with her family would cheer her up. After all, there was her mother, her three years younger sister, Cindy and her grandma who she didn't want to disappoint.

She entered the room putting on the biggest fake smile she could make.

"Bring the cake!" Mai demanded as she entered the room, relying on her sweet tooth that would always cheer her up.

As the cake was brought out and a wish was made, she dug into the cake eating it as if she had been starved for the last two months.

"Mom, I'm a little scared of Sis right now, do you know what happened?" Cindy whispered next to her.

"Shut up and eat some cake!" Mai shouted, shoving a piece of cake into her little sister's mouth.

"Oh my, it seems like something must have affected her love life. It's normal for the Talen family to act like this when their love life is affected. Believe me, your mother used to be just like you at your age."

"The thing is, you shouldn't worry right now, the most important thing is getting good grades. With good grades you will easily be able to find a good husband in the future."

Mai didn't argue with her mother and just laid down to digest the cake. Leading up to asking Chris out, she had stopped herself from indulging in her favourite treats wanting to look the best for him. Now that she had been rejected, she could finally go back to her actual self.

"Mom, I know you mean well, but try to think back to your own time. What boys cared about your good grades in highschool?" Mai pointed out dejected.

"That's true, Mom." Cindy agreed. "For girls these days it's all about the butt, the chest, and the lips. Unfortunately, Sis here is lacking in all those departments."

"She's right, she's right... " Her grandmother nodded. "Bum, bum, bum, it's all I see on TV these days. It's all about the bum."

"Please! I don't want to hear my family talk about my love life right now. Especially not my grandma talking about Bums!" Mai protested.

As the family started to settle down, her grandmother brought out a small little box wrapped up with a nice neat little bow.

'I've been saving this for you and wanted to give it to you when you turned sixteen." Her grandmother said.

Opening up the present, Mai took out what looked like a clear green gem attached to a small silver chain. It was a necklace but something about the crystal really drew everyone's eyes in the room.

"It was once a present to me from your late grandfather. Remember how he used to go out on those big digs of his? Well, that was one of the things he had discovered before he left us. I never wore it myself, because I wanted to pass it on to a new generation." She explained.

"It's so pretty, Grandma, but this was from Grandpa to you, I-I… I can't take this." Mai objected.

But her grandmother just shook her head. "Your grandmother doesn't need any jewelry at her age. Take it, it's yours, maybe you'll have a little bit more luck from now on."

Although today had been a horrible day, the pretty necklace certainly made it a lot better. It was the only good thing that had happened to her that day. Because of that, she left it on when she went to sleep.

However, as the night went silent and everyone started to sleep, her mind naturally thought back to the embarrassing moment...

'Chris, you were always so nice to me compared to the others, and I thought we got along well, so why? I never expected you to turn me down, especially not so coldly.'

'Please, I at least need to know why? Was it because I'm not pretty enough? Is there anything I can change about myself?' She started to think and tears were rolling down her face.

Eventually, crying had tired her out and Mai fell asleep. Unbeknownst to her, in the middle of the night, while in a deep sleep the crystal around her neck started to glow.

Mai's vision was black and blurry, nothing unusual after her crying, but there was something different suddenly. She could hear the sound of others crying around her as well.

'Huh, who are these other people and why are they crying?' She thought.

Slowly opening her eyes, the first thing she saw was a picture frame. It wasn't just any picture frame but one of Chris, looking around ten years older than this morning. However, that wasn't even the most shocking thing, it was that his picture frame was placed on top of a casket.

'What the? Is this a dream? Was I so mad at him that I wished him dead and now I'm dreaming about it!?'

Looking at the clothes she was wearing, Mai noticed that she was in all black and all the other guests were as well which only confirmed it. She turned her head and there were a few people she recognised such as Chris' parents, only they too looked older than she remembered them.

'Look at how pathetic I am. I got rejected by him, and now I'm dreaming that I'm at his funeral.' Mai thought.

At that moment, Mai felt a soft touch on her right shoulder. Looking up to see who it was, she could see a brown haired beauty with long hair, and stunning cheek bones. The perfect lips, bum and looking at her chest made Mai feel jealous. If Cindy had seen her now she would have given this girl a ten out of ten.

Still, trying to collect her thoughts, Mai had no clue who this girl was or why she had approached her.

'I once read that the people you see in dreams are only those you've met, so who exactly is she?' She wondered.

"It must be hard for you to have lost your husband." She said.

"Husband!?" Mai shouted back, absolutely shocked.

Attending his funeral in her dream was already a crazy experience, but why was she suddenly married to the guy who had rejected her?

Before she could make any sense of this, tears dropped down her face and hit the crystal around her neck.

The scene before her grew hazy and Mai found herself back in her room. She was just in time to wake up and greet the rising morning sun.

She checked her phone and made sure that just a single day had passed since her birthday.

'What a strange dream...' Mai thought.

*****

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